Life jacket for aquatic use

ABSTRACT

The life jacket has a harness designed to be fitted over the torso of an individual and having a dorsal structure and a ventral structure, at least ventral buoyancy tubes attached to the harness, and manual inflation means for inflating the ventral buoyancy tubes. The uninflated ventral buoyancy tubes are arranged in the dorsal structure of the harness and, when inflated, they are deployed in the ventral structure of the harness. The harness has a guide rope extending along its dorsal and ventral structures and the ventral buoyancy tubes are attached to the harness by a connector that can also be inflated and is designed to be deployed, under the action of the inflation means, by being guided along the guide rope. The life jacket is only deployed on the front of the abdomen in the event of difficulty.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention of the present application relates to a life jacket for aquatic environments, be it the sea, a lake, a river or even a swimming pool. More particularly, the jacket of the present application is primarily intended for swimmers and people naturally moving in water, that is individuals who are in the water, but not by accident or involuntary fall in the water.

The jacket of the invention has to be able to compensate for difficulties arising when in the water, due, for example, to a physical deficiency, and thus avoid drowning.

Life jackets have been around for a long time. Most are arranged to be slipped on or worn before any difficulty arises, so that for swimmers they can only hinder their progress in the water.

There are automatic life jackets, which are automatically inflated on contact with water. They are also outside the scope of the present application, since in the water they become active and perform their safety function, and the swim of those wearing them is therefore always impeded.

Finally, the problem that the inventor has faced is to be able to provide swimmers with a manually operated life jacket that they can wear while swimming but without preventing them from swimming.

The following patent applications are also known: WO2010/128690A1, KR20180046057A, FR2216166A1, FR2891155A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,497,889A.

SUMMARY

To this end, the invention relates to a life jacket comprising a harness arranged to be slipped on the torso of an individual and comprising a back structure and a belly structure, at least belly buoyancy tubes connected to the harness and manually actuatable inflation means for inflating the belly buoyancy tubes, wherein the belly buoyancy tubes, when uninflated, are disposed in the back structure of the harness and, when inflated, are spread out on the belly structure of the harness.

The life jacket of the present application, as long as its inflation means are not actuated, cannot interfere with a swimmer who is moving in the water, since he/she does not have the buoyancy tubes on his/her belly. He/she only spreads out them on his/her belly in case of difficulty.

In the preferred embodiment of the life jacket of the invention, the harness comprises a guide cord extending along its two back and belly structures and the belly buoyancy tubes are connected to the harness by a connector that is also inflatable and arranged, under the action of the inflation means, to spread out while being guided along the guide cord.

Advantageously, each belly buoyancy tube is connected to its connector by a valve arranged to allow the inflation of the tube only after the connector has been spread out.

Thus, it is ensured that the belly buoyancy tubes, once inflated, are well positioned on the belly structure of the harness, thus providing the swimmer a comfortable position in which he/she is turned on his/her back.

It is also preferable that the life jacket of the invention also comprises a back buoyancy tube arranged, under the action of the inflation means, to be inflated and spread out against the individual's nape.

Still advantageously, the uninflated buoyancy tubes and the inflation means are disposed in a pocket of the back structure of the harness, as are the inflatable connectors.

In the preferred embodiment, a pull control element is provided to actuate the inflation means.

In the uninflated state of the buoyancy tubes and connectors, the latter may be folded back into the pocket below passage slots which are kept sealed, so as not to reduce hydrodynamics.

The inflation means of the life jacket of the invention, well known to the person skilled in the art, may comprise a cartridge of gas, generally CO₂, a triggering device, a control pull tab for the triggering device, for releasing the gas from the cartridge, and means for putting the cartridge and the buoyancy tubes and their connectors into communication.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be better understood with the following description of several embodiments of the jacket of the invention, with reference to the appended drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view of the belly structure of the harness of the life jacket of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a view of the back structure of the harness of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 is a view of the left side of the life jacket of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a view of the harness of FIG. 1 , flat and at rest;

FIG. 5 is an exploded view of the harness of FIG. 1 , flat and at rest, showing the interior of the pocket;

FIG. 6 is an exploded view of the harness of FIG. 1 , flat and in the inflated state of the buoyancy tubes and their connectors;

FIG. 7 is a view of the left side of the life jacket of the invention, in the inflated state of the buoyancy tubes and their connectors;

FIG. 8 is a view of the belly side of the life jacket of the invention, in the inflated state of the buoyancy tubes and their connectors;

FIG. 9 is a view of the back side of the life jacket of the invention, in the inflated state of the buoyancy tubes and their connectors;

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of the pocket of another embodiment of the life jacket of the invention, in the rest state, showing the interior of the pocket and

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view of the pocket of FIG. 10 , in the inflated state of the back buoyancy tube.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The life jacket that will now be described comprises a harness 1, here slipped on the torso 2 of an individual in FIG. 1 , comprising a belly structure 3 (FIG. 1 ) and a back structure 4 (FIG. 2 ).

The harness comprises, for positioning on the torso 2, a pair of shoulder straps 8, passed around the individual's neck 5, and a belt 6 passed around the individual's belly 7.

The shoulder straps 8 are attached to the belt 6 by a clasp 9.

The belt 6 may be in one part, and is then elastic to accommodate different sizes of individuals, or it may be in two parts, which may also be elastic, and may be joined by an adjustment buckle.

At the rear of the jacket, on its back structure 4, a pocket 10 is attached, for example by sewing, on the shoulder straps 8 and the belt 6, for receiving two inflatable belly buoyancy tubes 11, their inflatable connectors 12, a back inflatable buoyancy tube 13 and an inflation system 14. The pocket 10 is closed and has passage slots 18 for the tubes and their connectors.

The tubes and connectors are made of a material suitable for inflation, which the person skilled in the art will be able to choose without difficulty.

At rest (FIG. 5 ), the tubes 11 and 13 and the connectors 12 are in a folded back state inside the pocket 10. They can come out of it through the slots 18 that can be opened under the action of their inflation, by the inflation system 14, and then sealed for example by spring flaps pushed during inflation and folded down by their spring against the pocket, after reintroduction of the tubes and connectors in the folded back state into the pocket 10 of the back structure 4 of the harness 1 of the life jacket, in order to prevent water from entering the pocket. After the tubes and their connectors come out, the flaps can also be folded down by their springs.

To spread out the belly buoyancy tubes 11, the inflation system 14 is triggered to begin inflating the connectors 12, causing them to come out of the pocket 10 with the buoyancy tubes 11 still in a more or less folded back or curled up state.

Suspended from the belt 6, between the pocket 10 and the clasp 9 to which it is attached, is a guide cord 15 for the connectors 12 (FIG. 6 ). In the embodiment represented in FIG. 6 , evenly spaced rings 16 are attached to one edge of each of the connectors 12 and through which the cord 15 passes. As the inflation system begins to operate, the connectors 12 inflate and spread out along the cord 15, which thus guides them along the belly 3 and back 4 structures.

To ensure that the buoyancy tubes 11 do not remain against the back structure 4 once inflated, which would be detrimental to the safety of swimmers in the belly-up rescue position, each buoyancy tube 11 is connected to its connector 12 by a valve 17 whose flapper releases the passage of gas to the tube only after the connector 12 has been fully spread out, around the individual's torso 2, from the pocket 10 to the clasp 9 so as to inflate the tube only after it has been positioned against the belly structure 3.

A particular embodiment of the pocket 20 for receiving the buoyancy tubes, their connectors and the inflation system of the jacket of the invention may be contemplated, as illustrated in FIGS. 10 and 11 in which only the back buoyancy tube 13 is represented.

The pocket 20 comprises a relatively rigid plate 21 on which is clipped, on its top 22 and bottom 23 edges, a flexible cover 24, provided with two top 25 and bottom 26 clipping edges.

At rest (FIG. 10 ), the respective edges of the plate 21 and its cover 24 are respectively clipped onto each other. Upon actuation of the inflation system 14 (FIG. 11 ), the edges 22, 25 become disengaged under the thrust of the inflation of the tube 13, the pocket 20 continuing to open laterally under the action of the inflation of the connectors 12 of the belly tube 11. The cover 24 pivots away from the plate 21 about its edge 26.

The inflation system 14, which is perfectly conventional here, comprises a gas cartridge 30, a triggering device 31, with a locking member for the device, and a control pull tab 32 for the locking member. The connectors 12 of the belly buoyancy tubes 11 and the back tube 13 are connected to a bag 33 into which the neck 34 of the gas cartridge 30 opens. The gas used is usually carbon dioxide CO₂. When the swimmer pulls the pull tab 32, he/she unlocks the triggering device 31 and the gas escapes from the cartridge 30 to fill the bag 33, the connectors 12 and the tubes 11, 13. 

1-10. (canceled)
 11. A life jacket for aquatic environments comprising a harness arranged to be slipped on the torso of an individual and comprising a back structure and a belly structure, at least belly buoyancy tubes connected to the harness and manually actuatable inflation means for inflating the belly buoyancy tubes, wherein the at least belly buoyancy tubes, when uninflated, are disposed in the back structure of the harness and, when inflated, are spread out on the belly structure of the harness.
 12. The life jacket according to claim 11, wherein the harness comprises a guide cord extending along both its back and belly structures and the belly buoyancy tubes are connected to the harness by an also inflatable connector arranged, under the action of the inflation means, to spread out while being guided along the guide cord.
 13. The life jacket according to claim 12, wherein each belly buoyancy tube is connected to its connector by a valve arranged to allow the inflation of the tube only after the connector has been spread out.
 14. The life jacket according to claim 11, wherein there is also provided a back buoyancy tube arranged, under the action of the inflation means, to be inflated and spread out against the individual's nape.
 15. The life jacket according to claim 11, wherein the buoyancy tubes, when uninflated, and the inflation means are disposed in a pocket of the back structure of the harness.
 16. The life jacket according to claim 12, wherein the buoyancy tubes, when uninflated, and the inflation means being disposed in a pocket of the back structure of the harness, the connectors of the belly buoyancy tubes are, in the uninflated state, disposed in the pocket.
 17. The life jacket according to claim 11, wherein there is provided a pull control element for actuating the inflation means.
 18. The life jacket according to claim 12, wherein the buoyancy tubes, when uninflated, and the inflation means being disposed in a pocket of the back structure of the harness, the buoyancy tubes and the connectors, in the uninflated state, are folded back into the pocket below passage slots kept sealed.
 19. The life jacket according to claim 15, wherein the pocket comprises a rigid plate on which is clipped a flexible cover arranged to move away from the rigid plate under the action of the inflation system.
 20. The life jacket according to claim 11, wherein the inflation means comprise a gas cartridge, a triggering device, a control pull tab for the triggering device and means for putting the gas cartridge and the at least buoyancy tubes in communication. 